The Nikkei Average started 302.62 yen below the previous day at ¥63,190.37 at the open on the 15th. Stocks including Furukawa Electric and Fujikura fell. Against a backdrop of insufficient gains in U.S. equities and higher oil prices, oil and coal products and nonferrous metals ranked among the biggest decliners by sector.
The Nikkei Average started trading at ¥63,190.37 at the open on the 15th, down ¥302.62 from the previous day. U.S. equities had declined again in the previous session, with the Dow extending its losses. Reports of tighter regulation of AI-related companies also weighed on the market, and the downward trend became more pronounced after the open.
In addition to the reaction in U.S. markets, persistently high oil prices and continued elevated long-term interest rates weighed on investor sentiment. Stocks including semiconductor-related names were soft, while a sharp fall in the SOX Index also pushed the broader market lower.
By sector, oil and coal products, nonferrous metals, mining, electric appliances and machinery ranked among the biggest decliners. In contrast, services, pharmaceuticals, air transportation and retail were relatively firm or moved only slightly. At the open, Furukawa Electric, Tokyo Electron, Fujikura, SUMCO, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Marubeni, Sanrio, Advantest, Murata Manufacturing, Renesas Electronics, Hitachi, Resona Holdings, Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsubishi Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Ibiden were among the stocks trading lower.
The main text does not discuss the market outlook, but reports indicated that selling was dominant immediately after the open and that buying support was hard to attract at lower levels.